Thermal cameras are used for a variety of building inspection applications including insulation, moisture, electrical faults, HVAC and even stud-finding in walls. In addition there are myriad applications in industrial or utility settings where thermal images are desirable for preventative maintenance operations.
The high cost of high-resolution thermal imaging has severely constrained the size of the market for thermal inspection cameras. In many cases users settle for single-point “spot” infrared thermometers and gather only a fraction of the thermal information, often at the expense of significant time and effort where multi-point measurements are needed. There has been a choice between single-point measurements and complete two-dimensional images, with pricing of the devices for the two approaches being one to two orders of magnitude apart.